I have always been one to pick stupid goals and then make it happen, fortunately for me as I’ve progressed in life from childhood to adulthood I actually learned that when you set an outlandish goal, you probably need to do things bordering on outlandish to accomplish them.

After gaining my MCSE 2003 certification, I pretty much swore off certifications. To much work, not enough reward, etc, etc. Then over the last 18 months or so at work I have had the fortunate opportunity to play a significant role in some incredibly awesome efforts: Always-on Horizon implementation, and SDDC/Automation PoC, and the design and implementation of a full on SDDC. While shooting the breeze with a co-worker numerous times throughout this period we have discussed that much of the work we have executed for these efforts would make a hell of a VCDX design submission – for the track of our choice.

At first this was just a big of a joke, but eventually it turned into a seed in the back of my head, and once that happened that means it’s simply a matter of time, which has now arrived. Barring some logistical challenges of getting the prerequisite exams knocked out, funding, and any work related hurdles I may have to navigate, I’m intending to submit a design for defense this September, which if approved would result in a defense date in December. While the work I have done has been deeply in all four VCDX tracks, and in my mind are probably appropriate for any, I’m going to target the DCV track because it is the cleanest path for me in terms of prerequisites.

This is going to be crazy hard. I have 3 kids and a wife. I need to get myself in shape for an Ironman in April, and hopefully race another in October, and I need to put a design to paper, which is going to really suck – because I simply am horrible at documentation. Talking, marketing, drawing on a whiteboard, technically fixing a squeaky widget? I’m totally your guy. Documenting all that stuff that is in my brain, umm yeah, can you maybe just follow me with a video camera? I’ve got too many shiny things to play with.

At the end of the day, while this is about the certification and the recognition it may (not) bring, going through this process will make me a better person, a better technologist, and will give me a new challenge to tackle.

A log time ago, in a place not very far a way, I had an irregularly updated blog dedicated to tech stuff that I encountered at work and in my lab, which I unfortunately abandoned (the blog). Recently work has gotten exciting and at the same time I’ve been “forced” to rebuild my home lab, resulting in me deciding to revive said blog.

This is the story of that adventure. There will be stories of intrigue, heartbreak, and magic involving dragons, progress bars, Nutanix, vSAN, NSX, Openstack, vRA, and lots of other buzzwords.